138 



Potatoes have no determined place in any rotation.^ They 

 are not frequently taken upon sward land broken up, although 

 this is sometimes the case ; in general they follow corn and are 

 commonly manured in the hill with the coarsest manure which 

 the barn-yard affords. Turnips are frequently sown among In- 

 dian corn at the last hoeing, and in this way one hundred bush- 

 els or more are in many cases obtained to the acre- With the 

 exception of potatoe , no succulent vegetables are cultivated to 

 any extent excepting for family use. I cannot have a doub{ 

 that the farmers in Franklin county would find a great advan- 

 tage in going extensively into the cultivation of turnips, ruta- 

 baga, mangel-wurtzel, sugar-beet, and especially carrots and 

 parsnips, for their store, milking, and fatting stock; and that 

 these will presently find their place in a judicious rotation of 

 crops. The farmers would soon perceive the advantage in their 

 manure heaps ; as there are no means by which so much val- 

 uable manure can be made, where there is plenty of straw or 

 of other substances to litter the yards as absorbents, as by 

 the free use of succulent vegetables. There cannot be a question 

 likewise that the health of every kind of live stock would be 

 greatlj/- promoted by the occasional or daily use of succulent 

 vegetables, even in small quantities, instead of keeping them, 

 through our long winters, wholly upon dry fodder. I have 

 mentioned above parsnips, as among the vegetables Avhich might 

 be advantageously cultivated for stock. I know no case in 

 which this has been done to any considerable extent, though 

 practised and greatly approved on the islands of Guernsey and 

 Jersey in Great Britain. An experiment on a small scale has 

 fully satisfied me that no feed will more increase and enrich the 

 milk of milch cows, or conduce more to the thrift of fatting an- 

 imals. They are of very easy cultivation ; the seed is of tri- 

 fling expense ; they are not known to be subject to the depre- 

 dations of any insect ; they n)?y be as well sown in the autumn 

 as the spring, which would be in many cases matter of great 

 convenience ; and they may be left in the ground, where it 

 might be expedient, to be taken out in the spring as the cattle 



